DIY Kid

Superkid loves DIY You Tube videos. He can watch them all day. But even better than watching a DIY video, is planning your own project. Among the reams of sketched paper the Toads put out every day, are stacks of meticulously drawn battle ships and aircraft carriers. Each with a bizzillion guns and cannons. He is obsessed with building one himself and is often testing the buoyancy of various objects. Let's just say that bath time and his dish day are a real treat.

Here he is displaying a battleship that required 5 sheets of paper!

And even better than planning and testing are execution. Look at this sweet ride he made at Scouts. He still needs to paint, but he is very pumped about his military transport.

Nice work Superkid. You are an awesome engineer!

S'more of This Please!

We just can't get enough! 

Pops loves his fires and we love chill'n with him.

We're working on perfecting our roasting skills.

But it is sticky business, sometimes it even winds up between our toes!

Double decker anyone?

Good to the last bite!

The Yard is Alive!

I got up early to sneak in a few hours of weeding before the day took over. 

I was joined by the kids as they woke up. 

Abz was actually indignant that I started without her! Dirt is truly her medium. 

She also observed that God disguised some weeds to look like flowers.

When Pops came out, he assigned the Toads the task of weeding the 3 patios. They knocked out 2 of the 3 taking turns working...

and relaxing...

Jaws cooperated too by taking a garden slumber...

To celebrate our labors, we dined al fresco. I defy you to find a weed!

Apprenticeship

This is what I came home to:

Tadpole's apprenticeship as a cook by Master Chef Abizella! 

She has taken him under her wing. So far they have conquered brownies and pancakes. 

They even cracked an egg with twin yolks! 

Big Boy Stuff

It all started with this new hog for Jaws. 

He took it for a ride and decided he was all big boy. 

Well actually after 10 minutes in it he was whipped and had to take a nap. 

But he rebounded today by rolling from his tummy to his back 2 times!

 So far it is our little secret. He refuses to perform for Pops. 

I was actually pretty surprised, with a big blind dog roaming the house, we don't put in a lot of tummy time. Jaws is an opportunist, when given the chance at church today, he just flopped right over. 

Make time stop.

Who Me?!

All right, come clean Little Chief. What do you have behind your back?

Beach Babies!

Can you believe that Jaws is 3 months and this is his first trip to the beach?! 

This is Toad abuse! This is a situation that needed to be rectified, even though it was a school night.

As soon as Abz jumped out of the van and surveyed the beach scene, she spied this group of punk kids burying their friend in the sand. She dashed straight down to their side and started mounding sand on the teenage mermaid. Tad and Little Chief couldn't resist either!

Superkid found his own fun. He started engineering a sand bridge between two rocks.

Soon all the kids were engaged in his great effort.

Tadpole spent most of his time running into the icy surf and being chased out by the colossal waves. He asked, "Mom, how can I chase those waves back into the ocean?" 

He also scavenged a discarded battery from the rocks that line the beach. It is such an amazing treasure that he is still fisting it today.

I convinced the kiddos to take a second photo shoot after the light got a little better. 

Can you tell what they were bartering for? 

How about 5 more pictures for 5 ice cream cones?! 

Sold! 

The only thing left was to come home and crash! 

In Superkid's words, "He's out for the count!"

That's All She Wrote

To my great surprise, Valley Forge is a few miles away from Bryn Mawr. "Bryn Mawr?" you say? This is my alternative life. Who knows where I would be had I gone to this all girls college 20 years ago. I was heart broken at the time, but I couldn't imagine my life turning out any better than this! I think I dodged a bullet. 

But it was fun (for me at least) to stop by and see what it was all about. The brochure looked way better.

Then back on the road to trot trot back to Boston. There was a little of this...

...and that (this is my view of Jaws when I would "check in" to make sure he was still breathing).

And a *WHOLE* lot of this!

But we made it. What a great Spring Vacation. I am so happy we made the Journey together.

Ense Petit Placidam Sub Libertate Quietem

Next stop, Valley Forge Pennsylvania. 

This was the long cold winter of the Revolutionary war. 

No battles with the British fought here, just the battle to hang on.

We got a good idea of what it was like to be a revolutionary soldier

...well, without the suffering of exposure and starvation.

But we all agreed, we preferred the comfort of the Marriot to crammed hard quarters of the soldiers!

We all enjoyed this gorgeous monument to our Patriots.

And this monument to the soldiers who fought from our great Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 

It reads, "Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem" which is latin for, 

"She seeks with the sword a quiet peace under liberty." 

I love it. It is the official motto of Massachusetts. 

I might have to find some way to incorporate that into the decor of our humble abode.

We also got to tour George Washington's quarters. He was quite a bit more comfortable compared to the soldiers, but I can imagine it was insufferable compared to his Mount Vernon!

A great way to end a very patriotic journey. Our kids better get a 5 one the AP History exam. Seriously.

James Monroe. Bonus Round.

We say it every time we come to Virginia. "Next time we will visit James Monroe's house too." Truth is, he literally lives around the corner from Thomas Jefferson. But honestly, if you are trying to squeeze both Monticello and Montpellier in on the same day, there just isn't time for poor old James Monroe. It is a shame too. He was the 5th President, and the last president that was a founding father. He supported the founding of colonies in Africa for freed slaves. These colonies later became Liberia, and the capitol is "Monrovia". Now that we bought ourselves an extra day, we stopped on by.

We toured his lovely gardens...

Walked a winding path...

And toured his 4 room estate. A mansion that we could truly identify with.

We have now officially toured the houses of all the founding father presidents. Go team!

We're Back!

Remember that time we went to Virginia? 

Well, I'm not done blogging about it yet, in fact, I haven't even gotten to the main attraction, Montpelier! 

Home of James and Dolly Madison. 

Pops and I came here 13 years ago when it was still in the DuPont era.

Here is Pops in the rear of the house.

Here I am on the front lawn. We toured the house, but there was no evidence of the Madison's ever living here. It was steeped in the decor of the roaring 1920s, even a horse room with about a bizzillion pictures of horses. 

There was even a horse race track out front (there still is!).

Right after this trip the historical society started restoring the mansion to the Madison Era.  Pops and I were pumped to hear this because we were disappointed in the lack of Madison's presence. 

We vowed to come back.

Sandy and I stopped by 6 years later. They had made significant progress removing the pink plaster and all of the additions. Superkid and Abz were not impressed. 

I vowed to return.

Pops and I heard that the mansion is open again for tours. We have been talking about going all year. We seized the chance over school vacation week. The house is not open for tours on Monday and we made plans to visit cousins and friends over the weekend while they were available, so that made Tuesday the big day. First, we stopped by Monticello and then hit the road for Montpelier. With Montpelier, Virginia in the GPS we hit the road. About an hour and a half later we landed in Montpelier, Virginia. Turns out to be about an hour away from James Madison's Montpelier. Major disappointment. Especially since it was going to close for tours in 30 minutes and we were planning on starting our drive home that night. And sadly we had our cousins with us who had never been there before either. Bummer. We did go back and walk through the gardens that night. We just couldn't take it so we extended our vaycay 1 more day. We booked a room nearby in Charlotte and drowned our sorrows in the pool (this is LC's winking face)!

We toured the last remains of the DuPont era, the gardens and race track.

Abz and I went on a tour of the house...

While the guys paid their respects at the family cemetery.

We all stopped and visited with the Madison's.

Then the little Toads and I toured the "Temple", James Madison's outdoor office, while Pops and Superkid toured the house.

We also did a little excavating, which was the coolest thing ever. We dug up actual artifacts from the property, then washed them and categorized them. Very cool.

Walking the halls and rooms of this great estate was well worth the trip. I am in love with James Madison and his commitment to make this crazy American experiment work. I have to admit I got a little emotional when I heard the tour guide talk of how James Madison locked himself in his library for a year studying government types and coming up with a plan to replace the Articles of Confederation. I am so happy he cared. You gotta love those founding fathers. 

The kids tolerate all this nonsense from their parents because there is usually a trip to the gift shop for a souvenir. I told them the only souvenir I wanted was an awesome picture of the family on the front lawn (look at Tad give it his all).

We will be back. They are still working to restore the Madison's belongings, including James Madison's library!

Teacher Appreciation Night

The kids anxiously awaited their teacher's arrival at the church's 22nd annual Teacher Appreciation Night.

Superkid invited his 3rd grade teacher Mrs. Breen. I didn't get the best picture of this moment. Trying to minimize the  awkwardness for everyone. Superkid was as always an awesome host. Mrs. Breen was impressed and said in her 22 years of teaching she never had been invited to anything as special as this and never felt so honored. Nice work Superkid.

Tadpole invited his Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Carey. She is expecting her first baby in August. We encouraged Tad to make small talk with his teacher and ask about her life. He said to her, "So, Mrs. Ca-w-ey. You're going to be a "mudder" soon. What do you think about that?" Sounds like they had plenty to talk about.

Abizella invited her Espanol teacher Senora Manning.

Abizella simply adores her. She does let the kids dance during class after all. 

Thanks to Senora Manning, if Abz knows a word in Spanish, she uses it.